FIND SENIORS DUMB, MR CHIDAMBARAM ?

It started with the last Indian Budget of 2007. Mr P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister, with his usual, gushing smile, presented the Budget and the document had a first surprise for Senior Citizens of India. They happily discovered that they don't have to depend on their children for their sustenance after retilrement till they go to the other world. They could go with dignity and even give the children whatever they could afford, as always. The exciting line for them was that they could mortgage their property in reverse mortgage, that is they will not have to pay - if they could not afford it - back the mortgage. But their children, if they wished, could retrieve the property for their use by paying the amount.
Very simple and very attractive. This Senior started making enquiries. Non of the public sector banks had heard of the scheme. Even the main branch of the State Bank of India, Parliament Street, did not know about it till January, 2008, one month berore the new Budget ! Of courst, there were feelers (not from the SBI), the usual gambit of Government departments, how much we would like to spend on the "documents".
And with the new Budget came the clarification : "reverse mortgage would not amount to 'transfer' of the property under the Income Tax Act".
How silly of us that we did not know that "a loan" taken against porperty is "not a monetary gain" under the Income Tax Act, till the Government clarified it through the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, the biggest public sector insurance company.
LIC being a Government department, the Seniors are well advised to contorl their dreaming - and wait till next Budget when new clarifications surface. And, anyway, 2009 is an election year in India. There will be many surprised, certainly.

o0o